When Congress returns this week there is the possibility the Senate Finance Committee could take up a child welfare bill that is still very much in flux. The draft bill, the Families First Act, would allow Title IV-E funding on a limited category of substance abuse, mental health and in-home parent support programs for up
On Friday, November 20 the American Youth Policy Forum sponsored a Capitol Hill briefing on the topic of How Research Evidence Informs Foster Youth Medication Policies. The panel discussion included an examination of definitions, usage and oversight of psychotropic and other medications for youth and children in foster care. The discussion reached beyond the numbers
On November 9, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report they had provided to the Senate Finance committee in October. The report: HHS Could Do More to Support States’ Efforts to Keep Children in Family-Based Care examined eight states including Washington, Kansas, New Jersey, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Connecticut and Colorado by interviewing 41 stakeholders
The poverty rate in 2014 changed little from the previous Census data according to the annual release by the Census Bureau. The income report was released on Wednesday, September 16 and it showed that In 2014, the official poverty rate was 14.8 percent with 46.7 million people in poverty. The poverty rate for children under age
The Child Welfare and Supportive Housing Resource Center brought together participants from five place-based initiative sites to discuss the progress of their new efforts. The pilots are attempting to better assist child welfare involved families through an intensive approach that combines supportive housing and human services in an effort to keep families together. The five
Last week CWLA joined others in the launch and announcement of the Voices of Youth Count campaign. The Voices of Youth Count is led by Chapin Hall in collaboration with CWLA and other partners across the country. Its goal is to have both a reliable national estimate of youth homelessness and a clearer picture of
A bipartisan bill that would create a commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking, S. 991 was reported out of a Senate Committee last week. The bill, sponsored by Senator Patty Murray (DWA) is similar to a House bill, HR 1831, sponsored by Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WS). Generally the commission would evaluate the use of data on federal
The Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) have released a new injury prevention policy report. The Facts Hurt: A State-By-State Injury Prevention Policy Report, The study is a report card based of 10 key indicators of leading evidence-based strategies that help reduce injuries and violence. One person dies from
On Tuesday, May 20 more than a dozen groups led by Futures Without Violence released their new recommendations called, Safe, Healthy and Ready to Learn: Policy recommendations to ensure children thrive in supportive communities free from violence and trauma. The recommendations focus on seven goals: * invest early in parents and young children; * help
Youth Villages and Results for America convened a roundtable of experts to discuss the findings from a newly released evaluation by MDRC, a nonprofit, nonpartisan education and social policy research firm, on the promising interim results of Youth Villages’ transitional living program called YVLifeSet. Becoming Adults, by MDRC examined the YVLife Set model that is